Castle of Shadows
by Sasuke1121
Summary: Prince Orean isn't an ordinary prince, he is an amazing fighter and always keeps his cool. But when a mysterious person threatens Orean's life he is forced to runaway, with a mysterious girl. all words are pronounce like they would if they were japanese
1. Chapter 1

**The Castle of Shadows**

**Chapter 1: Wanted**

The sounds of the battle clashed outside of the castle walls, the crash of swords, the cries of pain and anger, and there I sat in the throne room. _The prince, I'm the prince and here I sit with the battle raging outside these stupid walls._ I thought. Of course when I voiced these thoughts the head advisor, Renelus, said,

"Your Highness, you are not supposed to fight unless the barriers your mother placed on the throne room are broken." Even in the midst of battle Renelus' high, squeaky voice was annoying. "Besides that, don't you think you should have a sword?"

"I do have a sword," I replied, my sword was a special sword called a katana, the reason Renelus couldn't see it was because it was strapped horizontally to my lower back which was easier than attaching it to my side like everyone else. "Besides, you know full well I only ever fight enemies with my hand and feet as my only weapons. I'm known as The Shao Prince for a reason." Shao was the name for hand to hand combat, which I was well known for using my own style of. The other fighting styles were called Nehao, which was sword fighting, and Kaao, the name of spell work. I was good at Kaao, but Nehao was definitely one of my weaker points, a fact Renelus knew full well.

"Yes but a fifteen year old prince needs to know how to fight with a sword, besides all of your enemies will be using swords." Renelus squeaked.

"That is why I use Kaao shields." I replied calmly.

"Nevertheless…" The doors burst open and one of the messengers came running in.

"Your Highness, some very strong warriors have broken the barriers and are coming to fight you." He gasped.

I smiled. "Finally."

No sooner than the words came out of my mouth than 20 men came into the room wearing the red armor of the enemy. The biggest one called, "Where is the Shao Prince?"

"You're looking at him." I said, pointing to the black crown set with one sapphire in the middle, which I had just sat on the arm of the throne after standing. The men laughed.

"You?" said the man. "You can't be more than seventeen."

"Fifteen, but thank you for the compliment." I was still smiling.

"Very well then I shall be the first one you are to fight." The man took a step forward.

"Why," I replied. "would I fight only one of you at a time when I can defeat you all now?"

The men laughed again but the big man, who apparently was the leader said, "Fine then, you little brat." They all charged at me swords drawn

None of them saw it coming, before they knew it I was standing in the middle of them. I swung my leg up and kick the man nearest me in the face, as he went flying I put my hands of the floor and kicked the next guy in the face as well, putting me in a handstand. A third man swung his sword at my arms, I push myself into the air flipped and landed behind him, I jab him in the back using my palm, causing the energy I had built up in my hand to release. There was a loud crack, his spine had snapped. The next four fell just as easily, then seven more fell, I fought another few minutes. Finally there was only one man left, it was the leader. I ran, to him vanished, and reappeared inches from his face. I knocked the sword from his hand and pinned him to the wall.

"You truly are The Shao Prince," he said. His eyes were cold, and full of hatred and anger, "We were sent here to kill you, Prince Orean."

I almost released him in shock, I controlled myself and said, "Who sent you?" he didn't answer, he instead looked at the ground and spat at my feet. "Then I have no more to say to you." I pulled back my hand and said the incantation, "Patter of rain, Clap of thunder, fly to my hand and strike my enemy; Kaao Reinii." I felt the water and electricity surround my hand and I thrust it forward into his heart. I pulled my hand out of his chest and let his body slide to the ground. I turned around and looked up at Renelus. He still had his eyes covered, the idiot.

"Renelus, I'm fine." I called. He uncovered his eyes, and looked at me.

"Oh, Your Highness, I knew you could do it." He said.

I rolled my eyes and started walking toward him, next thing I knew I was laying on the floor with Renelus, my mother, and my father standing over me.

"What happened?" I asked groggily, my head felt like it had been split open, the side effects of a healing Kaao.

"One of those men that you fought must have poisoned you." My mother said softly.

"Are you alright son?"My father asked, his normally booming voice was rather hoarse.

"Yeah, but mother, what level spell did you use to take out the poison?" I replied.

"It was only a medium level spell, most of your headache is probably an effect of the poison," She said, "I'm just glad you are alright."

"How did the battle go?" I sat up to look at them.

"We drove off the quarter of the enemy we didn't defeat," My father answered. "By the way," He turned to Renelus. "What was Orean's time beating these guys?" He pointed around the room at the twenty bodies.

"I believe it was about 3 minutes, would have been less if he hadn't used Kaao on that last one." Renelus pointed to the body of the group's leader."

"That's my boy." My father beamed at me. I smiled but didn't say anything, my mind was still filled with the man's final words, _we were sent here to kill you, Prince Orean._ At first I thought that I should have left him alive to question him, but if I had passed out while restraining him, even with Kaao, he could have broken free and finished his job easily. I decided not to tell my parents about the fact that he was sent to kill me and instead asked. "Did you find out where the other army came from, I didn't recognize their armor?"

He looked down at me his eyes were full of worry. "It was The Karwallians, but these men are not from their ranks, the Karwallians wear silver armor. We don't know who these men are. Orean, they may have been sent to kill you, did they say anything?"

"Well, yes," I said, my mother gasped. "That one," I pointed to the leader's body. "Said that he was sent to kill me, then when I asked who sent him he spat and me and…" the words "I killed him" rang in the air but I didn't say them.

"Well it was for the best anyway, and besides that, it appears that whoever did this severely underestimated you." My father said quietly. I smiled slightly, then stood up and said.

"I'm going to bed." I walked to the door, threw it open, and walked out.

The next morning I made my way down the spiral staircase and into the great hall. My mother and father were already eating breakfast. When I walked in Renelus ran up to lead me to a chair, I held up my hand and he backed away.

"Renelus, you know I don't like to be treated like royalty." I said sitting in the chair next to my mother.

"Yes Your Highness, but you _are_ royalty." Renelus replied.

"Okay, I don't care. As long as I have conscious thought I will not be treated like royalty." I glared at him.

"Yes, Your Highness," I cleared my throat and continued to glare at him. "I mean Prince Orean."

"Thank you." I smiled and turned away. After a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and sausage, I walked out into the garden despite Renelus' protests of, "It's too dangerous." And "There are people out to kill you." The garden was huge, and one of my favorite places to be alone. I had planted most of the flowers and encouraged them to grow with Kaao. Plants, water, and electricity were the types of Kaao that I was best at. I was not quite good enough at the time but I was almost ready to create a small storm.

My country, Sarmia, was in the middle of a vast forest. The trees were some of the tallest in the land of Wisteran. This terrain made it easy work for our army to win battles.

Now that I was far enough from the palace I looked up at it. The towers seemed to stretch to the sky. I could see some of the servants walking past windows but aside from that the castle seemed kind of empty. I heard a rustle behind me and turned to see one of my friends walking out from one of the bushes. Her blonde hair, characteristic of servants whereas royalty all had light brown hair, had leaves tangled in it. She looked up at me and gave a very pronounced bow.

"Good morning your royal princyness," she said in an over dramatized peasant accent "or would you rather be called your hinnyness?" she looked up at me but remained bowed.

"What about Orean." I smiled.

"Ok." She popped up out of the bow and started bouncing on her toes. Her name was Cecilia and she had rather a lot of energy. "So what brings you out to the gardens on this lovely blood strewn day?" she asked.

"Blood stained?" I said startled.

She looked at me for a second. "Boy, those guys really must have hit you hard."

"Oh," I felt the knot that had appeared in my stomach loosen. "You meant the battle last night; you had me worried for a minute."

She just continued to stare at me, her wide blue eyes penetrating my amber ones. "Popcorn!" she shouted suddenly, I jumped. Cecilia often shouted random words that made no sense, but I should have seen this one coming. "Tut tut." She said. "A young prince shouldn't allow himself to be frightened."

I rolled my eyes, and turned back to the palace, "Shouldn't you be in the kitchen?"

"I had a vision that I should go into the garden," She replied. The other strange thing about Cecilia was that she sometimes had visions of the future, but not very vivid ones, nor important. "and look what I came across, a wanted prince."

I turned to look at her. "Wanted? How…"

"We servants hear things." She cut me off.

"Well I'll be sure to have a word with Renelus." I said.

"He's the one who told us." Cecilia said.

"I know, that is what I'm going to talk to him about."

"Oh," we both stood in silence for a moment, "Well, have fun with that." Then she turned and skipped away.

I shook my head and walked in the opposite direction. Fortunately Cecilia chose to walk toward the castle, so I was walking away from it. I walked a ways and sat down on a beautiful stone bench, our family crest was carved into the side. The design of the crest was that of a tree cleverly made to look as though it was made of water. I had brought a book along; I opened it and began to read. This quietness didn't last long, there was a scream of terror from somewhere around the village which was on the side of the garden opposite the castle. I groaned, stood, and ran in the direction of the scream. When I reached the village entrance I saw the problem immediately, there was smoke pouring out of one of the nearest houses windows. A young woman, around my age, was standing in front of the house looking shocked. Ignoring the murmurs of the villagers when they saw me, I held my hand in the air and said "Kaao Niite." Instantly water fell on the fire from nowhere. Low level Kaao do not have a spell.

"Oh, thank you; thank you so much your highness. I am Sarae, as gratitude for this I will give you anything you ask for." She looked at me with admiration

"That won't be necessary," I smiled at her. "Your safety is enough."

"Oh, thank you sir." She fell to her knees, took my hand and kissed it.

"You're welcome. You three," I pointed at three strong looking men who were watching quietly. "Why don't you help this poor woman rebuild her house?"

"Yes Sir." They said.

I looked back at the woman, smiled, and walked back into the garden as though nothing had happened.

The villagers stared after me; some still had their mouths opened in shock. It wasn't often that a member of the royal family walked into town. I smiled, seeing the prince was a rare sight, especially when he was alone, but I enjoyed seeing their expressions.

"There you are." someone said from behind me. I turned and found myself staring into the face of the head of the secret security squad, a team of highly trained warriors who could move so quietly that even I couldn't detect them. He smiled grimly. I sighed and closed my eyes, I opened them again to find that he had backed off; I smiled and said in monotone.

"Yep, you caught me."

He smirked, "I know that tone of voice, don't think you can use Speed Step this time. You're already surrounded." I felt my eyes widen in shock. Speed Step was a type of Kaao that allows the user to move quickly and silently by concentrating energy into your feet. It is more of jumping forward and landing then jumping again in quick succession than actually running. I turned a found that I was, in fact, surrounded. There was no way of getting out of this; I would have to go back to the palace with them.

"Renelus sent you, didn't he?" I asked. He nodded.

Once we reached the castle I marched straight into Renelus' room, he was sitting on his bed working on some sort of royal document.

"Renelus," I shouted. He jumped and papers went flying everywhere. "Why did you feel the need to send the royal guards to drag me back to the palace?"

"W-well y-your highness," He knew how bad I could be when I got angry, "I t-t-thought that it was f-far too dangerous, y-you are the prince." He looked terrified, I smiled.

"Well you are right but still you should have sent one person after me not the entire squad, they are here to protect the castle and the village, not to search for a prince who is perfectly capable of protecting himself." I looked at him with a slight smile. He seemed to realize that I wasn't mad anymore because he stopped shaking and looked me in the eyes for the first time.

"Um your highness, what exactly happened in the village?" I looked away again as my expression changed to a frown.

"I saved a woman's house from burning to the ground." I replied. He looked up at me again and said.

"Your highness you are not supposed to go into the village alone unless your father has to make a royal proclamation."

"Oh calm down, you know perfectly well that that rule was put into effect for the safety of a prince years… oh." I realized that Renelus was absolutely right. I should have been leaving the castle, sure I could have protected myself but those guys from the security squad were able to sneak up on me, so why couldn't someone else.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The Runaway and the runaway**

It had been weeks since the battle and the attempt on my life, Renelus was still panicking anytime I was away from the guards. I did, at least, take his advice when it came to going into the gardens. The fact that whoever tried to kill me hadn't tried again wasn't much of a comfort. It was likely that whoever it was lived far away and would not be expecting their men to be back yet. The week was going from bad to worse. Not only was my father having no luck in finding my potential killers but a thief, nicknamed the Runaway, had started to loot the village and no one had even seen him.

"If we don't catch this thief soon we will go from one of the richest countries in Wisteran to the poorest." My father said to the breakfast table at large. Most of the servants ate breakfast with us, my mother and father believed that everyone should be treated equally; therefore they had a choice as to where they wanted to eat. A murmur spread across the table.

"Your Majesty, how do you plan on finding them if no one has even seen them before?" asked a gardener whose name I could never remember.

"Well, if we can get half of the members of the security squad to patrol the village then we should be alright." My father replied. I stared at him in shock; he never shared his plans with the servants. I suddenly realized what he was doing and adjusted my face into a look of concern. He was using this to make sure no one in the palace was the Runaway or in league with the person trying to kill me. Either way, if one of the servants in the palace was planning something they would do it when the palace was least guarded. My father was truly brilliant.

After the servants had all gone back to work I asked. "Am I right in thinking that you were lying about the security squad?"

He smiled and said, "Nothing gets past you. How quickly did you figure it out?"

"I figured it out when you started telling the servants the plan." I laughed.

My father smiled again, then he stood up and left saying, "Renelus, come with me please."

"Yes your Majesty." Renelus squeaked, then he to left the room.

I started to follow him, but my mother said. "Wait, Orean," I turned toward her. She was still seated and was looking at me calmly, in the brightly lit room the sun made her amber eyes, which mine were so much like, glow brightly. "I want you to remain in your bedroom until those horrible people who tried to murder you have been caught."

"But mother…" I started angrily.

"I don't want to hear it." She snapped.

"I should be able to protect myself from them, just like I did before." I said.

"Before, you nearly died anyway." She replied.

"I… fine." I stood and walked out of the room. I took the nearest staircase which lead up to the fourth floor, and down a corridor lined with suits of armor. This corridor connected my room and my parent's room. When I was little I was afraid of walking down it because the suits of armor scared me. It certainly wasn't a good way for an 8 year old to get to his parents room after having a nightmare. I was no longer scared, when I turned 12 I realized that nothing would pop out at me. Now it was so normal to me that I made it to my room in a matter of seconds without even looking at one of the suits of armor.

I had a large room which was decorated to look like a garden with all kinds of flowers and even a small pond with some fish in it. My bed was on the far right wall, it too was decorated with a garden theme. Most of it was made of trees and flowers but some was made of regular wood. I would have sat on my bed but someone was already there. It was the head of the security squad. When he saw me he stood up and said. "Your highness, I am here on your mother's orders to…"

"Yes I know," I interrupted. "But would you please do your job _outside_ of my room."

"But I…Yes, I will your highness." With that he strode past me and walked through the door to stand guard outside.

As the door closed I sat on my bed, my hand covering my face. It was a bit annoying to have guards that didn't understand personal space. Though I suppose orders were orders. Fortunately, my orders counted too. I began to believe that my father was right. Someone in the castle must have been in on the murder attempt. No one except Renelus, my parents, and the security squad were supposed to know about the fact that I was in the throne room, but Renelus was known to be a bit of a loud mouth. Besides, it wouldn't have been hard for someone to listen in on a conversation my father was having with Renelus about my protection.

A few days later and still nothing had happened, except that the Runaway had again escaped capture. My life was as boring as ever. I was now being escorted to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If I wasn't in the great hall, then I was in my room reading. One night I woke as suddenly as if I had be hit in the face with ice water. I heard scraping out on the balcony, I froze, I could have handled this person even without Kaao but I needed to discover who they were first. The balcony door opened, I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. I could still see the person using Kaao to sense there life energy. I recognized this energy, it was… I opened my eyes to find the head of the security squad standing over me.

"It was you?" I shouted. He covered my mouth.

"No it isn't me; your father and mother ordered that I sneak you out of the castle." He replied. "Get dressed, quickly." He walked over to the balcony door and looked in both directions before walking out.

Still confused and tired I tried to get dressed as quickly and quietly as possible. The guard popped his head back into the room and said. "Pack some clothes to take with you."

I again followed his orders and packed the most discreet clothes I could find. I walked out onto the balcony with a small bag slung over my shoulder. I found that the head of the squad wasn't the only guard; in fact seven of the squad's best members were there.

"Ok, you have to tell me what is going on eventually." I said just above a whisper.

"Alright, someone told your father that there was going to be another attempt on your life tonight."

"Who told him? Did they know who was going to do it?" I was getting hopeful for some kind of explanation.

"We still don't know anything, the person who told your father refused to reveal his face."

"You realize I could have handled things myself if you just warned me?" I asked.

"Your mother wouldn't allow it." He replied.

"Of course," I appreciated my mother's concern but I wished she would trust me a bit more.

"Anyway hurry up." He changed the subject.

"Surely you aren't all taking me out of the castle." I stated.

"Your right, we aren't, your friend Cecilia is." He smiled.

"Oh." I was actually rather pleased; Cecilia would make the journey, wherever we were going, much more lighthearted

We made our way down the wall using a Kaao that allows the user to walk on solid vertical surfaces. A similar, but more difficult, Kaao could be used to walk on water. After a long walk down, we finally reached the western end of the garden.

"Now," The leader said when we reached the ground. "Before you go and meet Cecilia you must use Kaao to disguise yourself as a peasant. You know how they look, blonde curly hair, green eyes, and you're rather pale so a darker complexion would be good." He held a mirror up so I could change my look a bit easier. First my hair turn a light golden color, then my eyes turned forest green, and lastly my pale complexion turned darker to give the appearance of someone who worked outside a lot. Personally I thought I looked better but the leader chuckled and said, "Alright, Cecilia is waiting just inside the garden." I nodded turned and walk through the path he had pointed to.

I walked a ways but I didn't see Cecilia anywhere. Suddenly a hand grabbed me from behind and pulled me around. It was the woman whose house I had saved.

"Hello." I said, using Kaao to make my voice sound older.

"You can drop the fake voice I know it's you prince Orean." She said in a voice that sounded both angry and a little scared.

"How did you know?" I was beginning to get nervous.

"Your friend Cecilia has a rather big mouth." Her smile didn't have any real happiness behind it.

"Where is Cecilia?" I asked.

"Don't worry, she's alright. I simply convinced her that I was supposed to escort you instead."

"What do you want from me?" I was getting angry now.

"I want you to help me leave this country," She said. "As I said before, my name is Sarae I will pretend to be your escort if you lead me out of Sarmia and since you are fleeing the country anyway it works out for both of us."

"Fine, but that doesn't mean I trust you." I didn't like people who used other people for their own gain. Sarae smiled again, I could see the relief in her eyes.

"We better go; we have a long journey ahead of us." I said, most of my anger had died down but I could still feel it stirring somewhere deep in my heart.

We made our way to the east side of the garden, and exited onto a dirt road surrounded by trees. This was the only way in or out of Sarmia by land, the other side of the country ended halfway out to sea, including an underwater village. The road lead straight on for a long time, finally we came to a fork in the road.

"Which way do we go now?" Sarae asked.

"I-I don't remember. Besides we should stop for the night anyway, it's nearly one in the morning." There were a lot of trees that we could hide in.

"Fine, we'll continue our journey at dawn." She replied. We made our way into the trees and set up camp. Those heroes in story books might have taken advantage of a situation like this by running away; fortunately I wasn't that stupid.

"Why do you want to leave Sarmia? I asked.

She stared at me with a look of slight amusement and said, "I always heard that the Shao Prince was extremely clever, I guess that part was just legend." She laughed. I felt my face turn red with anger and embarrassment before she said. "I'm the Runaway."


End file.
